


The Great Divide  Chapter 2:  Here We Are

by Antigravity_Carnivore



Series: The Great Divide [2]
Category: Breaking Benjamin (Band), STARSET (Band)
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Angst, Band Fic, Computers, Crossover, F.E.C., Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Music, M/M, Male Homosexuality, Male Slash, Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-09 01:12:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10400409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antigravity_Carnivore/pseuds/Antigravity_Carnivore
Summary: Dustin Bates is safe back at the base, but tensions between Benjamin and Thomas are starting to grow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ok-so I didn’t mean to write more, but it happened. It would appear that I will be continuing this story after all. 
> 
> Please note that my other work, -The Starset Series- is to be read before this. 
> 
> Also-You will notice that this chapter is considerably shorter than most of my other work. I have done this intentionally to make it easier on proofreading and editing for me.

This is Chapter 2 of “The Great Divide”

Moments of silence passed. Neither of the men moved. Thomas felt Ben’s hands slightly trembling behind him, sensed a slight waver to his body, and slipped out of his arms, stepping away. He began to straighten out his shirt, noticing that it was caked with dried blood. A sudden pain in his side reminded him that he needed to seek medical treatment, before infection set in. He had other worries though, looking to Ben, he could see that he had a pallid expression on his face, and his eyes were distant and withdrawn. Reaching out, he placed a hand on his arm, startling him back into reality. “Ben?”

Looking down at Thomas’s hand like it was some sort of foreign object, Ben immediately pulled away and cleared his throat, briskly walking past him and headed for the door without another word, leaving Thomas alone in the office with a puzzled look upon his face. A rift seemed to be forming between them. Feeling a little offended that Ben simply walked out, Thomas sighed and ran a hand through the dark, thick curls of his hair. A sinking feeling started to overcome his thoughts, and he had to clear his mind and force it away. He watched as Ben left the room and headed down to the corridor in a rush, and then went over to where he had tossed his backpack on the floor. Bending down to pick it up, he winced and shoved his hand into the wound at his side to apply pressure. He would have to wait to get it looked at, Ben would be down in the infirmary with the patient, and he had a feeling that it was not his place to be there, after all, who was Thomas to Ben but just his communication and computer expert? There was no plausible reason for him to be riding on the Commander’s footsteps when checking on a recovered prisoner. Protocol had to be followed. Wrapping his fingers around the cloth strap of the backpack, Thomas's hand clutched at the material tightly, pulling at its fibers. Is that all that this man… Dustin, was? Merely a prisoner with some sort of important military intelligence locked up in his head that Ben so desperately needed to recover, or could it be something more? 

He let out a huff of discontent and resigned himself to worrying about it later. He had more important things on his mind. The first of which was the stolen device that he had stashed away in his bag. It was an interesting piece of technology, one that he could not wait to get to work on dissecting, and then repairing, in hopes that he could find a more productive use for it. It would have to be done in secrecy, of course. If the Commander got wind that he had brought alien technology into the base, Thomas would be severely reprimanded, even though he was in close with Ben, he knew that Ben would be forced to make an example out of him, and that thought alone frightened him. Keeping it secret wouldn’t be a difficult thing right now, anyway, since Benjamin was distracted with the new arrival. Which should give him more than enough time for a full analysis. Slinging the backpack over his shoulder, Thomas headed out of the room and caught sight of something out of the corner of his eyes, through the large bay windows behind the desk. He walked over, pushing the chair out of his way and looked out the windows to the desolate, sandy landscape outside. At first glance, he could see nothing there but the blowing dust and debris, but then just off to the edge of the perimeter, he saw it. Wisp’s of darkness surrounding a tall, stationary figure, positioned on a small hill top. It did not move, not even an inch, only the rags that it had covering it’s body were flowing, animated with the air currents of the wind around it. Thomas realized what it was and let out a curse. It was the same exact thing that he had seen standing in the road which led him to flip the vehicle on his escape from the Carnivores. Spinning around as fast as his injured body would allow, he made his way quickly out of the office and sprinted down the corridors, pushing past startled people as he made his way to the nearest exit. Fumbling with his key card, he swiped it hastily and pushed the heavy metal bar open that released the door. Within seconds, he was outside, facing the burning hot stifling heat and being assaulted by incredibly dry air. Slipping his goggles down over his face, he surveyed the terrain, looking desperately for the figure he had seen moments earlier. Nothing. Nothing but barren, desolate landscape that stretched on for miles and miles. Other than the sound of the wind blowing across the plains, and the rhythmic hum of the base generators, there were no other sounds. Maybe he had hit his head harder than he had thought, maybe he was going crazy, either one was plausible explanation. He sighed in disappointment, and returned to the base; he was exhausted beyond belief, dirty and wounded, in dire need of a shower, and maybe some food… but what he wanted the most he couldn’t have. 

Benjamin headed straight for the infirmary, moving as fast as he could without actually running down the hall. Upon reaching the medical wing, he pushed open the door to the observation room and stepped inside to the electronic hum of a multitude of monitors and various other devices. The medics immediately stood at attention as he walked in, gathering up their charts and reports, ready to brief their Commander on the status of the patient. Benjamin looked up at all the numbers, the flashing lines, and waves of information with a disjointed, overwhelmed expression on his face. These numbers and details that flashed so quickly and brightly on the monitors were the story of someone’s life; a someone that he cared very much for. One of the medics approached him and started talking, as Ben walked over to the monitoring window and looked to the room beyond where Dustin lay, totally cocooned in a network of cords and cables, each keeping him alive. His body was disheveled, the skin pulled tight over bones, draped over his frame like a thin paper, colored with horrid blue and purple blotches of bruises. There were deep lacerations on his wrists and ankles, oozing and festering with infection that the nurses were attempting to clean out. Benjamin noticed that Dustin was unconscious. As the medic continued to ramble on about technical things, Benjamin interrupted him, bringing a hand up to his own head and shaking it, trying to make sense if it all. “Stop.”

The medic pushed his glasses back up onto his nose and clutched at the chart he was holding, and stared, slightly confused. “Sir?”

“I was informed that he was awake.” Ben’s voice was inflicted with annoyance and impatience. “I gave specific orders that I was to be called when he was conscious.” He waved his hand at the room beyond, with a irritated tone in his voice. “This is hardly awake.” 

Swallowing hard, the medic took a step backwards, clearly intimated by his Commanding officer. “Sir, he was awake for a moment, when he was first brought into the room, however, he was having some sort of fit, screaming and throwing himself around, mumbling something about a ‘Monster’. Even his weakened condition, he fought us, and we had to sedate him so that we could begin to give him proper medical care.” The medic buried his face in the chart and avoided Benjamin’s accusing stare. “There was a problem though and due to his emancipated state, there may have been a miscalculation of the drug that we used and unfortunately this resulted in a coma.” He stopped for a moment and cleared his throat, obviously very apprehensive to inform him of the next bit of information. “The coma, sadly caused his body to go into shock, and we had to put him on full life support as a precaution.” The medic hesitated again and followed Ben’s gaze to the patient laying on the table. “At this time Sir, we aren’t sure that he will wake up again, and if he does, there may be too much damage to his body to make a recovery from.”

Grabbing the clipboard out of the medic’s hand, Ben threw it across the room, sending other medical staff jumping to avoid getting hit with it. He jammed a finger into the medic’s chest and loomed down at him. “I don’t care what you have to do, you fix him! Is that understood?”

“Yesss… sir...We are trying our best.” A hush fell over the room now, as every other member of the medical staff had stopped what they were doing and were blatantly eavesdropping on the conversation. The medic cleared his throat, trying to regain his composure, shifting from foot to foot, obviously debating whether or not to pursue his next thought. “There might be a slight chance that he won’t ever fully recover; if that’s the case, you can be certain that we will ---“

Ben glared at him, and he returned to his computer terminal. Benjamin sighed and looked around the room at the nurses, who immediately looked away, fearful of his wrath. Knowing that berating and harassing the medics would get him nowhere, Ben left the observation room and went into the hallway, leaning his back and head against the cold stone tile and closed his eyes. Had he come this far, fought so hard to save Dustin, and now was in danger of losing him again. Overcome with emotion, he ran his hands over his face, trying his best to pull back the tears that threatened to stream down his cheeks. Now was not the time or place to show weakness. He wanted nothing more than to go into the room and hold onto Dustin’s hand and tell him that everything was going to be ok. The truth was sadly, that he couldn’t bring himself to do it, because he didn’t know that things were going to be alright. He had sacrificed so much to find Dustin and bring him to where he was, but in the end, it all went wrong he had lost him. It weighted heavily on Ben’s conscience that he was responsible for what had happened to him. Everything in the past, everything in the future, it was all his doing; he had set things in motion that spiraled out of control and it was all slipping though his fingers. He wondered what sort of torture the F.E.C. had put him through, how they must have broken his body and spirit, to leave this shattered shell of a man to rot on a gurney until he expired. Benjamin also felt intense guilt for being here with Thomas and the rebels. Deep inside, he didn’t care for the rebellion and the planet. He was using them to find Dustin, a means to an end. He’d do whatever it took to nurse Dustin back to health, and since he couldn’t do it on his own, he’d have to depend on others, and then take him out of here, away from this awful place and awful time. Start again with a new existence in a world where they could live in peace. Together, forever, just as he promised. And Thomas… what about Thomas? 

Reaching his quarters, Thomas threw his bag down onto the bed and slowly wandered into the bathroom. He reached out and flipped on the overhead light, immediately regretting it. The harsh, fluorescent light seared into his eyes and brain and he blinked against it, in an effort to try to make it go away. After they adjusted, he looked at himself in the mirror, and let out a audible gasp. The soft, dark curls of his hair were now all tangled and matted together with bits of dried blood from his head wound, which stung painfully as he pulled stray pieces of hair out of the laceration. Turning on the cold water, he cupped his hands together under it, and splashed it over his face. It felt cool and comforting, instantly easing is wind and sun burned skin. Leaning down to the faucet, he stuck his head under the fixture and took long, gulping mouthfuls of the water in, quenching his thirst within seconds. As he stood back up, he started to peel off the layers of clothing, which were now almost fixed to him like a second skin. Taking his time, Thomas grimaced as he pulled the crusted undershirt off his body, part of it sticking to the wound in his side and refusing to let go. Cursing to himself, he pulled out a towel and damped it in warm water and placed it over the area. Looking into the mirror again, he saw the dark circles that ringed his sunken in eyes, which stood out remarkably against the rest of his sun kissed flesh. Within a few moments, the towel had saturated the shirt and it was easier to pull off. Underneath the cloth was the other souvenir that he had brought back with him from the mission, a large, gaping stretch of flesh approximately 8 inches long, running from his back and up around his hip bone, scorched and seared in a ugly red mess. The Carnivores high powered rifles were capable of doing immense damage with their bolts, instantly destroying tissue and muscle itself so that their prey couldn’t run very fast to escape; they were high efficient hunters that were heartless and cruel. Thomas considered himself lucky that he had only been grazed by one of the shots, a few more inches inward and his innards would have been sprawled out all over the ground. 

Struggling to get out of the rest of his clothes, he kicked them aside and turned on the shower. The bathroom immediately filled up with a humid mist that felt comforting on his naked, beaten and battered body. He stepped into the shower and let the water cascade over him, his mind drifting off for a moment to the strange device that he carried in his bag. It fascinated him to no end. A medical device that could put the patient in a state of stasis and also act like a security device was an insane idea. If it had the capabilities of creating and sustaining a dream like state that the patient could be put into, it would make complicated surgeries possible with any type of dangerous anesthesia. Being able to turn the brain off and then on again, like a switch could possibly make surgeries to the brain possible without damaging complications from the patient being awake. His mind reeled with all the possibilities. All he had to do was crack the coding in it and re-program it. It was a exciting, thrilling thought, to be able to work on something that could have the potential of such a world of good. The only downfall was that he had to keep his research secret and private, Benjamin would highly disapprove of any alien devices brought into the base, for fearing that they might be traced. It bothered Thomas that Ben did not completely trust in his abilities, but he kept silent and never said anything to the contrary. He knew that he had to choose his battles with Ben carefully, he cared for him too much to push limits. 

Stretching his arms out against the wall, Thomas lowered his head and let the water wash over him, his thoughts now going to Ben and the mysterious patient that he had brought in. Ben’s reaction to the news that he was awake was unusual and disheartening. When he walked past him to get to the door, nearly knocking him aside, Thomas almost felt invisible or nothing more than an obstacle in Ben’s way. He knew that he should have followed him to the infirmary, it would have been the right thing to do but something held him back and told him not to go. The dark thoughts inside of his head whispered all sorts of depressing things, making him doubt everything that he knew, but Thomas cast them all aside, knowing that he was just tired, exhausted and worn out, all they were, were merely doubts, nothing more. They had no power over him, unless he gave it to them. The only thing that he couldn’t figure out was a logical reason to what the strange human shape he had seen twice now. Visualizing it in his head brought an uneasy, uncomfortable feeling. There wasn’t any reason for it to be there; it seemed to exist out of emptiness and void. 

The water suddenly turned colder and cursing, Thomas jumped out of the shower and grabbed for a towel. Drying off, he examined the wound in his side, it was warm and pink, swollen slightly and painful, but he could deal with it. Making a mental note to see a medic later, he pulled out his medical kit that he had tucked away for emergencies. Unlatching the lid, he looked over the large amount of medical supplies with a fleeting sense of longing. So long ago, his passion, his desire was to become a doctor. He always felt the need to help others, especially those who could not help themselves. Thomas had so much compassion and caring in his life that he wanted to share it, and possibly save a life or two in the process, however, it was not meant to be. Fate has a funny way of changing people’s lives and he found himself swept away by the F.E.C. in the devastation that they had caused, and was forced into leaving his dreams behind. Having a knack for computers seemed to be important to the F.E.C. rather than medical training, after all… they considered the weak and sick expendable, useless humans that could be easily replaced. 

Running his fingers over the various bottles of injectable drugs and supplies, he sighed wistfully and found some large gauze pads and medical tape, and carefully bandaged up the wound as best that he could. He pulled on his pants and threw a towel over his head, drying his hair off and made his way out to the living area where he spotted his backpack laying partially open. Draping the towel around his neck, he padded over to it and pulled it open, sliding the F.E.C. visor out of it. Flipping it over and examining the deactivated device, he let out a started cry and dropped it back onto the bed. The LED screen that had been shattered when he tossed it had mysteriously repaired itself. “What the hell?”

Gently picking it up again, he held it in his hand, examining it closely. The visor was perfect and unmarred, as if it had never been broken in the first place. He ran his hand over the glass display, feeling for any imperfections or nicks in the screen but there was nothing. Unexpectedly, with the casual pass of his hand, the device suddenly turned on, lighting up as a boot screen appeared on it. With shaking fingers, Thomas flipped it over, examining every single crevice, desperately trying to find a button to power it down, but nothing. Glancing at the screen again, his eyes widened and he stared at it in disbelief as a message appeared on it.

Welcome Thomas Bell.  
We’ve been expecting you. 

Benjamin brought his elbows up onto the desk and his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes, trying to make the tiredness go away. Several of his men stood in front of him, unfurling maps and schematics across the desk, going over tactical strikes and various other infiltration methods to get an upper hand on the F.E.C., but Ben was only half listening. His mind was in another place, down the hall and to the right, to where Dustin lay in a medically induced coma that he might never wake up from. For the first time in his life, Ben felt truly helpless and it upset him to no ends. The F.E.C. would have to pay for what they had done to him, but he needed to be sure that Dustin was going to pull through, he did not want to leave his side and be far away, they had been apart far too long and Ben swore to himself that it would never happen again. Finishing up with the generals, he quickly dismissed them, trying to ignore their slightly annoyed faces and escorted them all out the door giving the instructions that he was not to be disturbed for the remainder of the night. 

Sitting back down at the desk, Ben scowled to himself, and then clicked his computer on. It flashed to life and illuminated the small office. He stared at the monitor for long moments, before sighing to himself and opening a video connection. A logo briefly appeared, then followed by a loading screen. Taking a breath, he drummed his fingers on the table, waiting for the signal to go through impatiently. There was still time to cancel the request. Finally after some time, his screen changed and a young man appeared on it. 

“It’s late. I was starting to fear the worst. What happened over there?”

Ben sat back in his chair. “There were some complications.”

The man on the other end of the chat’s voice seem to fluctuate. “Did he make it?”

“Yes, but in serious condition.” Benjamin scowled at the man in front of him. “What did you bastards do to him? He’s been starved, tortured, and hooked up to only god knows what sort of devices. That’s not the person I knew before laying in the infirmary, it’s a fucking zombie, and it’s all your fault.”

“The only information I was privy to was the encoded coordinates to his possible location, and the access codes for all the facilities. I had no idea what they were up to there, which is why I reached out to you; I knew you’d find a way to get him to safety. You know that it’s dangerous for me to communicate with you, if I was caught, it would be the end for me.”

Narrowing his eyes, Ben shook his head in disgust. “Is that all that you care about? Getting caught? Thinking of yourself?! I sent one of my best men in there to bring Dustin back… DUSTIN… DUSTIN BATES! Don’t tell me that you value your own skin more than his, because we both know it’s not true. Stop lying to me and to yourself and own up to it.” Taking a moment to calm himself, he drew a long, deep breath into his lungs and slowly exhaled. “If he dies, I will hold you personally responsible, and I will bring down every single branch of the F.E.C. until I find you and make you pay for withholding knowledge, Brock!”

“Benjamin please.” Brock sighed, his image flickering on the screen. “Listen to reason.”

Without another word, Benjamin closed the connection on the terminal and immediately stood up, knocking his chair over and started to pace around the room, uttering a few profanities. Sure, Brock had been the one to reach out to him in secret when he had discovered that the F.E.C. had taken Dustin prisoner, but due to his sensitive position, he was unable to do anything about it, other than pass long some encrypted messages, and that irritated Benjamin more than anything. Ben swore to himself that when Dustin recovered, he would find a way to make sure that Brock was taken out of the picture. Dustin didn’t deserve that traitorous bastard in his life…if he still had a life. 

Returning to his desk, Benjamin struggled to keep his mind occupied, skimming through reports and maps that he had been left for hours, not even really caring about them, but doing his best to make and effort. Looking up, he suddenly noticed how quiet and silent the base was. He glanced down at the clock and noticed that it was after midnight. Grabbing his jacket, he headed out, stopping at an intersection, looking down at the infirmary. Dustin was down there. He had to see him. Walking down the empty halls, his boots clicking on the overly polished floor, Ben made his way to the observation room, saying a silent prayer before tapping his badge on the sensor and stepping inside. Only one member of the medical team was on duty at this hour, a skittish woman with mouse brown hair and glasses, who immediately rose to her feet upon his entry, dropping the book that she had been reading, and kicking it out of the way. “Sir! So sorry, you startled me!”

He gave her his best reassuring look. “Update?”

Walking over to the glass window and looked at Dustin. Still hooked up to a multitude of machines, he looked so small and frail, laying there. There was a little more color to his skin now, but the rising and falling of his chest was shallow and weak, barely noticeable at all. The nurse joined Ben and followed his gaze. “There has been some progress, Sir. Vitals are improving a bit, and there’s some brain activity showing, so we’re concentrating on doing our best to make him…..”

“Don’t say that.” Ben cut her off suddenly.

“Excuse me?” she asked, pushing her glasses back up onto her nose.

“When you say ‘we’re doing our best to make him comfortable’, that’s a bad sign. It’s a last resort, bit of nonsense said to many families and loved ones in an effort to make them feel good about themselves. It’s verbal garbage that means nothing. Whenever I hear it being said, I know it’s hopeless.” Ben brought his hand up to the thick glass and placed his fingers on it for a moment, as if reaching out to touch Dustin in the room beyond. His heart was aching and felt like it was being crushed from the inside. 

The nurse turned her attention to Ben and found herself staring at his left hand, noticing a scratched, dull silver band on his ring finger. “Sir, I didn’t know that you were married.” Her words caught his attention and pulled away from the observation window and gave her a glance that she thought would surely turn her to stone. Immediately, she regretted the unprofessional questioning on her part and hung her head down in shame. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so bold. I… I.. was just thinking out loud, everyone knows that you and Thomas are.. “She stopped and put her hands over her mouth, turning a bright shade of red. Tears were welling up in her eyes. “I’ll just shut up now. Sir.”

Looking down at the wedding ring on his finger, he turned it slightly to the light, where the initials ‘B & R’ were dully engraved. A wave of memories washed over him. “That was a long time ago, when things were much simpler. The F.E.C. didn’t exist, everyone lived in peace, and the Earth was still green and beautiful. This world, and the people in it didn’t even exist.” He paused and looked to Dustin again. “I was a different person then, but I like to hold on to the memories that I have, of those whom I have loved, and will continue to love, for eternity.”

“That’s so beautiful, Sir.” 

“Is it?” He asked, not really looking at her or wanting a response. 

She nodded. “Yes.”

Ben snapped out of his reverie and turned away from the window, making his way past all the monitoring devices and through the room. “I will be in my private quarters, please notify me if there is any change.”

“Yes Sir. I will.” She stammered. Ben walked past her and stopped to pick up the book that she had accidently dropped when he came in and handed to her. The nurse sheepishly reached out and took it from him, her hand lightly brushing against his and with a guilty look and quickly tucked it away in her pocket as he made his way to the door. Before he exited, she called out to him, in a voice that even startled herself. “Sir?”

 

He looked back over his shoulder, standing in the doorway. “Yes?”

Immediately regretting her choice as to catch his attention, he words scurried away from her and she struggled to put them back together. “Is he really an important person? People have been talking, rumors going around, everyone’s speculating about his worth to the rebellion.”

Reaching out, he tapped his security card on the reader and hesitated, watching as the door slid open. “Oh?”

She looked back into the room where Dustin lay. “They say he’s going to save us.”

Without another word to her, Benjamin stepped out and let the door go closed behind him. “You’re wrong. He’s going to save me.” He whispered and headed off down the hallway, lost in his own thoughts.

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you in the know, Benjamin Burnley is married. His wife's name is Rhiannon, hence the names on the wedding ring. This was a nod to present day/our current time line. I just wanted to show that there can be a thousand different universes, a thousand different realities, but in the end.. love is the only thing that will remain the same.


End file.
